904 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The essay on the Buddhists ignores the result of the

researches of the last twenty years, and though it occupies
little more than a page contains several statements which
would be more accurate if otherwise expressed, and not
a few absolute errors. The Jains have no essay devoted
to them, though their remarkable temples and monuments
would naturally make a traveller in India desirous to know
something of them. They are confounded, on p. lvi, with
the Buddhists, their especial foes ; and it is said " their
figures of Buddha are naked," which is very much as if
one were to say of Roman Catholics that their figures of
Luther are painted.
We are fully aware that all such historical matter is
quite subsidiary to the main object of such a guidebook,
and that the alterations necessary to meet any reasonable
demands in this direction would scarcely require alteration
in more than a score of pages in the work. But this
question is precisely the one point in the volume on which
such a Journal as ours should express an opinion. And
it is a pleasure to be able to add that the archaeological
paragraphs constantly occurring in the work, and the plans
and sections of the various monuments of interest, are mostly
excellently done, and worthy of the high repute which
Murray's Handbook so deservedly enjoys.

THE AKBARNAMA OF ABU-L-FAZL, translated from the

Persian by H. BEVERIDGE, I.C.S. (retired). Vol. I,
Fasc. 1. (Calcutta : Bibliotheca Indica, 1897.)

Ever since the Calcutta edition of the Akbarnamah has

been completed, it has been hoped that the onerous office
of making its contents more accessible to the European
public by a translation into English would be accepted
by some competent scholar. At length this undertaking,
which few of us would have cared to enter upon, is likely
to be brought to a happy completion by the energy of
Mr. Beveridge. All scholars interested in Indian history

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 THE AKBARNAMA OP ABU-L-FAZL. 905

will owe a heavy debt of gratitude to him for having

devoted his leisure to such an arduous and, in many ways,
so irksome a task.
The ninety-six pages of this first instalment carry us only
to page 31 of the Persian text, comprising the Introduction
(1-33) ; Chapter I, on the signs and symbols preceding
Akbar's birth (34-49) ; Chapter II, on the birth of Akbar
(50-68) ; Chapter III, Akbar's horoscope according to the
Greek method (69-84); Chapter IV, the same according
to Indian astrology (85-95) ; Chapter V, another horoscope
by Fathullah of Shiraz (98).
In this first part of his translation Mr. Beveridge has had,
in addition to the obscurity inseparable from Abu-1-fazl's
style, overcharged with far - fetched allusion and cloudy
metaphor, to wrestle with a subject far removed from present-
day knowledge, namely, that of astrology and the casting
of horoscopes. In all except the first eleven pages of the
(Persian) text, he has received no aid whatever from
previous workers. Lieut. Chalmers, whose manuscript
translation belonging to our Society has been placed at
Mr. Beveridge's disposal, after giving a version of the
Introduction, passes over the whole of the crabbed astro-
logical lore, and does not resume until the more plain-
sailing narrative portion of the history has been reached.
To pronounce a definitive verdict on Mr. Beveridge's
translation, so far as published, would demand a wide
acquaintance with Persian literature and a great command
of Mahomedan science, above all in the highly technical
branch of astrology, a knowledge to which I can make
no pretence. Before making such an attempt it would be
necessary for me to devote to the study of the text and of
the subsidiary authorities quoted in Mr. Beveridge's notes
an amount of time and thought equal to that expended
by the translator himself. As this is impossible, I must
content myself by saying that the copious notes with
which every page is furnished bear ample testimony to
the unstinted labour bestowed by Mr. Beveridge upon
his task. Even if not technically perfect (an almost

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 906 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

unattainable ideal), his rendering must, I consider, be

pronounced an excellent piece of work, and one likely to
take a high place in the class of literature to which it
belongs.
When about to commence the translation of works on
Indian history, one of the first questions to engage our
attention is, whether we shall try to retain something of
the style and literary effect of the original, or, discarding
the form, content ourselves with transferring the mere
substance of the author's story. Mr. Beveridge has elected
for the first of these courses ; and in so doing I think he
chose rightly. For, after all, much as the European reader
may be repelled by the over-elaboration of his ornate
periods, Abu-1-fazl is still in Oriental eyes a classic writer
and a model of all that is excellent. On this ground alone,
the form of what he wrote must be treated with some
deference, even in what we look upon as its defects, and
a translator should aim at rendering something of its
gorgeous rhetoric, in spite of the overloaded effect thereby
produced. Mr. Beveridge must have often found the
search for appropriate adjectives and satisfying synonyms
a weariness to the flesh; and it is marvellous to see how
well the stately march of the sentences has been maintained,
and Abu-1-fazl's copious use of every artifice in rhetoric
has been grappled with; while the version, considered as
English prose, remains to a wonderful degree clear, im-
pressive, and distinguished.
For the common herd of Indian writers of history, those
with whom I am best acquainted, I should advise a different
treatment. To translate them at length would be a mere
waste of time. Many of them are mere imitators of
Abu-1-Fazl, and as is usual with that tribe, they exaggerate
all the worst defects and overlook the real merits of their
model. With their stilted tautology is blended none of
the weighty thought and vast reading which are never
altogether absent from the mightiest sweep of Abu-1-Fazl's
far-soaring flight. For, however arduous a task it may
be to unriddle it, there is always some real thought or

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 INSCRIPTIONS MANDAITES. 907

meaning wrapped up in Abu-l-Fazl's most tortuous sentence.

But with his followers and imitators sound takes the place
of sense, and two words are invariably used when one would
suffice. A literal reproduction of such bombastic stuff would
be, as Dogberry would say, " most tolerable and not to be
endur'd."
W M . IRVINE.

INSCRIPTIONS MANDAITES DES COUPES DE KHOUBAIR, texte,

traduction, et commentaire philologique, avec quatre
appendices et un glossaire, par H. POGNON, Consul de
France a Alep. Premiere partie. pp. 103 and 31
facsimiles. (Paris : Imprimerie nationale, 1898.)
The inscriptions published by M. Pognon were discovered
at Khoubair, a place on the right bank of the lower
Euphrates, and were found on some terra-cotta bowls.
These bowls are not hollow, but apparently solid to the
brim, and it is on the flat surfaces of these that the
inscriptions appear. They were placed in the ground
either upside down or face to face with their flat
parts touching each other. If the bowls were found only
in these positions there is much in favour of M. Pognon's
theory that they were used to imprison evil spirits, as the
inscriptions contain nothing but incantations to exorcise
the demons and break their spell.
In the introduction to the book M. Pognon gives an
abstract from a work by Theodor b. Khuri, a Nestorian,
who wrote on the origin of the Mandaic sect. The account
given by him of the creation of the world, although tallying
on the whole with that given in the Oinzd, is more detailed,
and seems to be taken from some Mandaic work now
unknown. In order to show that, according to Mandaic
belief, the end of the world is to be preceded by a false
Messiah, M. Pognon quotes a passage from the Oinzd
which refers to the extension of Arab rule, and in which
the phrase occurs, "Until the brick of the foundation shall
bear witness for him (the false MessiasJ." M. Pognon
J.R.A.S. 1898. 59

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